For my Master’s thesis, I decided to illustrate the story of Jonah from the Bible. I experimented with several layouts and formats to find the best way to express this epic and powerful tale. The formal emphasis of my thesis was to study how light and shadow could be characters in the story, and every composition was influenced by this research. My final deliverable was a book dummy that is filled with sketches on every page, along with 5 finished spreads. Major challenges included working around the center spine of the book and deciding where to place the text. I decided to use a uniform placement at the bottom of the page to give the book a classic feel and allow the images to be the dominant element of the book.

To plan out the book, I created a storyboard that would let me see the entire book at a glance. It helped me make sure I wasn’t repeating compositions too often or relying on the same answers to new problems. A storyboard also helps you see if the images are working well together and creating a visual flow that communicates the story from a tiny thumbnail.

A project of this size required a good deal of experimentation and exploration. In addition to determining the layout of the book, I had to decide how to style Jonah, the boat and the city of Nineveh. Below are some of my concepts that I used to make my creative decisions for the final book.